(a) The Uniform Commercial Code. A transaction subject to sections 36a-770 to 36a-788, inclusive, 42-100b and 42-100c is also subject to the Uniform Commercial Code, title 42a, but in case of any conflict the provisions of sections 36a-770 to 36a-788, inclusive, 42-100b and 42-100c shall control.

Terms Used In Connecticut General Statutes 36a-770

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Finance charge: The total cost of credit a customer must pay on a consumer loan, including interest. The Truth in Lending Act requires disclosure of the finance charge. Source: OCC
  • Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
  • Loan: includes any line of credit or other extension of credit. See Connecticut General Statutes 36a-2
  • Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
  • Person: means an individual, company, including a company described in subparagraphs (A) and (B) of subdivision (11) of this section, or any other legal entity, including a federal, state or municipal government or agency or any political subdivision thereof. See Connecticut General Statutes 36a-2
  • State: means any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, any territory of the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the trust territory of the Pacific Islands, the Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands. See Connecticut General Statutes 36a-2
  • Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. Source: OCC

(b) Filing and recording. § 42a-9-310 determines the need for filing or recording to perfect a security interest, § 42a-9-317 determines the persons who take subject to an unperfected security interest, and sections 42a-9-311 and 42a-9-501 to 42a-9-526, inclusive, determine the place for such filing or recording.

(c) Definitions. As used in sections 36a-770 to 36a-788, inclusive, 42-100b and 42-100c, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) “Boat” means any watercraft, as defined in § 22a-248, other than a seaplane, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water, by any power including muscular.

(2) “Cash price” means the total amount in dollars at which the seller and buyer agreed the seller would transfer unqualified title to the goods, if the transaction were a cash sale instead of a sale under a retail installment contract.

(3) “Commercial vehicle” means any domestic or foreign truck or truck tractor of ten thousand or more pounds gross vehicular weight or any trailer or semitrailer designed for use in connection with any truck or truck tractor of ten thousand or more pounds gross vehicular weight and which is not used primarily for personal, family or household use.

(4) “Filing fee” means the fee prescribed by law for filing, recording or otherwise perfecting and releasing or satisfying a security interest, as defined in subdivision (35) of subsection (b) of § 42a-1-201, retained or created by a retail installment contract or installment loan contract.

(5) “Finance charge” means the amount in excess of the cash price of the goods agreed upon by the retail seller and the retail buyer, to be paid by the retail buyer for the privilege of purchasing the goods under the retail installment contract or installment loan contract.

(6) “Goods” means (A) “consumer goods”, as defined in subdivision (23) of subsection (a) of § 42a-9-102 and motor vehicles included under such definition, having an aggregate cash price of fifty thousand dollars or less, and (B) “equipment”, as defined in subdivision (33) of subsection (a) of § 42a-9-102, having an aggregate cash price of sixteen thousand dollars or less, provided such consumer goods or such equipment is included in one retail installment contract or installment loan contract.

(7) “Installment loan contract” means any agreement made in this state to repay in installments the amount loaned or advanced to a retail buyer for the purpose of paying the retail purchase price of goods and by virtue of which a security interest, as defined in subdivision (35) of subsection (b) of § 42a-1-201, is taken in the goods for the payment of the amount loaned or advanced. For purposes of this subdivision, “installment loan contract” does not include agreements to repay in installments loans made by the United States or any department, agency or instrumentality thereof.

(8) “Lender” means a person who extends or offers to extend credit to a retail buyer under an installment loan contract.

(9) A retail installment contract or installment loan contract is “made in this state” if: (A) An offer or agreement is made in Connecticut by a retail seller or a lender to sell or extend credit to a resident retail buyer, including, but not limited to, any verbal or written solicitation or communication to sell or extend credit originating outside the state of Connecticut but forwarded to and received in Connecticut by a resident retail buyer; or (B) an offer to buy or an application for extension of credit, or an acceptance of an offer to buy or to extend credit, is made in Connecticut by a resident retail buyer, regardless of the situs of the contract which may be specified therein, including, but not limited to, any verbal or written solicitation or communication to buy or to have credit extended, originating within the state of Connecticut but forwarded to and received by a retail seller or a lender outside the state of Connecticut. For purposes of this subdivision, a “resident retail buyer” means a retail buyer who is a resident of the state of Connecticut.

(10) “Motor vehicle” means any device in, upon or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway by any power other than muscular. For purposes of this subdivision, “motor vehicle” does not include self-propelled wheelchairs and invalid tricycles, tractors, power shovels, road machinery, implements of husbandry and other agricultural machinery, or other machinery not designed primarily for highway transportation but which may incidentally transport persons or property on a highway, or devices which move upon or are guided by a track or travel through the air.

(11) “Retail buyer” means a person who buys or agrees to buy one or more articles of goods from a retail seller not for the purpose of resale or lease to others in the course of business and who executes a retail installment contract or an installment loan contract in connection therewith.

(12) “Retail installment contract” means any security agreement, as defined in subdivision (74) of subsection (a) of § 42a-9-102, made in this state, including one in the form of a mortgage, conditional sale contract or other instrument evidencing an agreement to pay the retail purchase price of goods, or any part thereof, in installments over a period of time and pursuant to which a security interest, as defined in subdivision (35) of subsection (b) of § 42a-1-201, is retained or taken by the retail seller for the payment of the amount of such retail installment contract. For purposes of this subdivision, “retail installment contract” does not include a rent-to-own agreement, as defined in § 42-240.

(13) “Retail installment sale” means any sale evidenced by a retail installment contract or installment loan contract wherein a retail buyer buys goods from a retail seller at a time sale price payable in two or more installments. The cash price of the goods, the amount, if any, included for other itemized charges which are included in the amount of the credit extended but which are not part of the finance charge under sections 36a-675 to 36a-686, inclusive, and the finance charge shall together constitute the time sale price. For purposes of this subdivision, “retail installment sale” does not include a rent-to-own agreement, as defined in § 42-240.

(14) “Retail seller” means a person who sells or agrees to sell one or more articles of goods under a retail installment contract or an installment loan contract to a retail buyer.

(15) “Sales finance company” means any person engaging in this state in the business, in whole or in part, of acquiring retail installment contracts from retail sellers or installment loan contracts from holders thereof, by purchase, discount or pledge, or by loan or advance to the holder of either on the security thereof, or otherwise.